"Randy Bryce was looking for another hit. On a weekday afternoon in August, the Democratic candidate for Congress in Wisconsin’s 1st District sat at his kitchen table, staring into the camera lens of his laptop. Bryce is a union ironworker when he is not running for office, and he was surrounded by traces of his craft. Four pairs of heavy high-topped work boots were scattered across the cluttered apartment he shares with his 11-year-old son on the second floor of a multifamily house. A weight machine took up most of the living room. The stairway smelled of cigarettes.

In four days, Bryce’s Republican opponent, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, would return to the district for a nationally televised forum on CNN. Ryan had gone more than 650 days without holding a town hall, and attendance at this one, like his other events, would be strictly vetted. Unable to score an invite, Bryce and his campaign team had decided to buy local airtime during the broadcast and run a series of ads. If Bryce couldn’t ask one question at the town hall, he’d pay $580 to ask three, pre-recorded with a dusty air-conditioning unit in the background.

Bryce looked into the camera lens and said, “Paul Ryan! Welcome to Wisconsin.”"*